‘Mr Chairman, may I be permitted to speak?’

Mountainsofthemoon wrote:

In NSW it seems an owner not on the Strata Committee can attend a committee meetings but only speak with permission.

Correct.

Is it necessary to seek and be granted permission ahead of time, or can it simply be done at the actual meeting?

Skipping past the catch-22 that you can’t ask for permission to speak if you’re not allowed to speak, any reasonable committee would allow you to make the request.  But then any reasonable owner would let the committee know in advance if they had the chance to do so.  You could, for instance, ask the chair before the meeting is called to order.

And if one seeks permission to speak, is it a requirement one has to tell the Secretary or Strata Manager what one wants to speak about?

The committee can only discuss items that are on the agenda, so if you haven’t proposed a motion yourself, it would be a simple courtesy to let the chair know which of the items you wished to speak about.  And speaking of courtesy, non-members being allowed to speak at committee meetings is exactly that.  It is not a right and can be legitimately refused  by a majority vote of the committee.

Jimmy is right about reasonableness and courtesy. If you exhibit these attributes, you should not be denied the opportunity to speak.

That said, permit me to throw in my 2c worth.

When I was Tsr of a large strata, we used to allow anyone (let’s call them “observers”) to speak on any issue listed on the agenda when the matter was discussed by the committee, so long as the person indicated he/she wanted to speak (by raising a hand) and spoke only after being recognised by the Chairman. They were always recognised by the Chair and only if they rambled on and on and on, were they asked to “wrap it up”.

If the observer wanted to discuss a matter not on the agenda then he/she should in advance of the agenda being circulated, advise the managing agent or the committee of the issue he/she wants to raise, have it listed on the agenda and, if the observer wants to give a positive impression, he/she could indicate their views on the matter to the committee in advance of the committee meeting.